Bite...... Ding Ding ......

It is the sound of the god who bears history, carving sand with a stone chisel in the burned history.

The giant sat on the ground, seemingly unresponsive to the approach of the uninvited guest, who still had the same appearance as Vana remembered—old, tall, with the vicissitudes of history carved into his face like a knife and axe, a mess of hair and beard, and a pair of sunken eyes.

But compared to what Vana remembered, he seemed to be older and a little more clumsy, and on his tattered robes, a faint red light could still be seen, as if the embers were still burning on him, and the occasional tiny spark burst out of the corner of his coat with his movements, and the firelight fell on the desert in a brief and vague phantom.

The giant raised his arm again, and the stone struck on the stone chisel, and the chisel fell in the loose yellow sand, but it burst out with sparks and crisp sounds like gold and stone clashing with each other, but the yellow sand was something that could not be carved after all—there was no trace left in the sand, only the crisp chisel sound, hollowly echoing in this endless sea of sand.

Vanna stood neatly beside a sand dune, looking at the familiar figure not far away, and after a brief hesitation, she finally followed the captain and tentatively took a step forward.

Then, the giant's low, hoarse voice finally broke the silence and reached her ears: "Time...... It is the illusion that the observer imposes on the change of things, and history is the shadow cast by the intelligent race in the illusion of time, and for the intellectual observer, all meaning is based on 'man'...... No one, no point. ”

Vanna stopped a few meters away from the giant.

"A long time ago, there were stones here, and history could be carved into the stones, but now there is only sand here, and even the fire is a little bit of fire," said the giant, looking at the bonfire that was crumbling in the cold wind, "and it was almost over." ”

"Civilization begins with fire and stone, and ends there......" Vanna couldn't help but speak—Taryjin had told her during that long dream in Breezehaven.

The giant finally raised his head, and his gaze fell on Vanna.

"Recently I had a very short dream, and that dream was passed over from a long, long time ago, and only a vague shadow remained...... But I saw you in those shadows," he looked into Vanna's eyes, the furrows on his face piling into a smile, "thank you for accompanying me on that journey, though I can't remember...... But I remember that it was a lonely journey. ”

Fana's eyes widened slightly, "That's what happened in Silandis's dream, you...... Can you also know? ”

"When time is about to close the loop, all the events that have happened in the time stream are connected to each other," Tarigan nodded slightly, "I was deeply bound to the time flow of this shelter when it was first established...... Now, I know a lot. ”

Then he turned his head to look at Duncan, who was standing beside Fanna.

"I've been waiting for you for a long time, usurper," the giant chuckled, "but it's okay, it's the only thing that still makes sense in this place where there's nothing. ”

"Frankly, I didn't expect this to be like this," Duncan exhaled, speaking his mind calmly, "I thought it would be ...... As a recorder of civilization, you will be in a better position than other 'gods', after all, 'memory' is one of your powers, and you should be better able to fight 'rot'. ”

"It's a counter-intuitive fact that when the course of the catastrophe is prolonged to a certain extent, 'history' often dies before the group itself," Tarejin shook his head, "and it's not always 'a group dies before their history dies', and in many cases, while a group is still alive, their history is over...... Forgetting is a terrible thing. ”

The giant paused here and sighed softly, "...... Forgetting is terrible, especially when so much of the world will suddenly disappear, and the 'corrections' within the shelter cannot fully heal the voids created by the 'blasphemy archetypes', so that there are countless lesions and tears left in history, and I do my best to cover up the distortions of history that may lead to the spread of pollution, and re-sculpt earthly memories, again and again, again and again...... The stone finally turned to sand, and the sand turned to ashes, and now it is almost unrepairable. ”

Tarykin shook his head, and threw down the stones and chisels in his hand—the moment they fell into the yellow sand, they shattered and turned into indistinguishable sand from the surroundings.

Duncan took a step forward and walked up to the giant who sat down taller than the tallest human, "You should know what I'm here for. ”

"Yes, I've already been contacted by Pilot II," Taryjin said indifferently, "you're here to end this world, as I saw a long time ago...... You will burn everything, and all things will eventually be destroyed at your hands - this is your first step in saving them. ”

Duncan calmly met the giant's gaze and asked curiously, "You mean when you and the other ancient kings first discovered 'me' before the establishment of the Sanctuary?" From that time on, you called me 'The Usurper'...... Also because you foresaw the future? ”

"I don't have the ability to calculate entire worlds like Navigator II, but I have eyes that can look into the distance on a timeline - though it doesn't always work so well," Taryjin laughed, his tone nostalgic, "In the old world, those who believed in me believed that I could do it, so I could do it. ”

"I've always been worried that 'burn everything' will lead to that 'end of the flames,'" Duncan thought for a moment and said, "This concern arose shortly after Pilot-One proposed to me that 'takeover plan' - a Last Preacher showed me the end of this end, and in that branch of history, I also burned the world, but the world still inevitably came to an end. ”

He paused at this point and calmly stated his long-standing concerns: "This is what I have always worried about, and it is the only thing I have been worried about so far, and that 'end of the flame' is like a shadow, and I always feel ...... Its conditions seem to be very close to the 'first step' I'm going to do next, and when I complete the 'first step', will I strayed into the historical branch of the 'Flame End'? ”

Sitting in the yellow sand, Tarykin leaned forward slightly, staring into Duncan's eyes for a long time, and after a long time, the old giant withdrew his gaze.

"So, there's a key point of disagreement," he said, his voice low, "whether it's the Pilot-1 plan or your own plan now, 'Burn Out the World' is the 'first step' that can't be bypassed, and the difference after that is...... Who are you when this program is executed. ”

Listening to the words of this "eternal fire", Duncan's heart suddenly moved!

He finally vaguely grasped that key point...... It's something I've always vaguely felt, but I've never been sure of the key.

He subconsciously took another half step forward, staring at the giant's eyes: "What do you mean......"

"There's a limit to Captain Duncan's power," Taryjin said calmly, "you've been in this avatar for too long, but...... It's just an incarnation after all. ”

Duncan's eyes widened slightly, he lowered his head, looked at his hands, and finally figured out what he had always vaguely felt was wrong, and why he had that instinctive worry......

It was his subconscious warning that his "self" bound in this body was aware of the limitations of the incarnation.

He is not Duncan, he is Zhou Ming.

Duncan, just one of his incarnations, like the antique store manager of Plant, like the frosty cemetery keeper - the captain of the Lost Land is only one of the three incarnations.

Duncan's first spiritual walk happened when he activated that brass compass - and Zhou Ming's first spiritual walk happened when he pushed open the door of the bachelor's apartment and walked through the thick fog!

He took a soft breath and let his thoughts calm down.

In fact...... He had already been aware of these things before, as "Zhou Ming", he had realized that his so-called "ontology" on the Lost Country was actually not fundamentally different from the two "corpse incarnations" of Poland and Frost, and realized that the identity of "Duncan" should be the first incarnation he had in this world, but all along, he had not thought carefully about the deeper meaning of this matter-

Whether he is Duncan or Zhou Ming, the question has been key from the beginning.

Key from the start......

Zhou Ming frowned suddenly, he suddenly recalled the first words that the goathead said when he saw him after he came to the Lost Country, and the sentence that it would confirm to himself every time - "Name? ”

"Oh, it seems you're starting to understand the nature of the question," just then, Tarikin's voice suddenly came from the side, waking Duncan from his musings, "Can you control your thoughts a little bit—Starlight is burning my eyes." ”

Duncan reacted suddenly, and only then did he notice that a faint layer of starlight had spread around him, and the starlight shone in the yellow sand around him, and even seemed to make this desert gradually soaked in this starry sky.

Taryjin lifted his tattered robes, blocking out the starlight shining on him, and there seemed to be some helplessness in his tone.

On the contrary, Vanna, who was standing next to her, looked fine, just stood there in a daze.

There is a kind of beauty that sports students stand next to the teacher and can't keep up with their thinking.

Duncan coughed twice in embarrassment: "Uh...... I'm sorry. ”

The starlight that permeated him gradually retracted.

(End of chapter)